


Every Knot Was Once Straight Rope

by Nestra



Category: Glitch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 05:31:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nestra/pseuds/Nestra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Knot Was Once Straight Rope

**Author's Note:**

  * For [isabeau](https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabeau/gifts).



> Title from Sondheim's "Into the Woods." Thanks for pinch hitting, isabeau! You are awesome.

_In the beginning was the word..._

"No," says Tii. "Wrong story."

"Right! Sorry."

_In the beginning was the_ world _, a round, green and brown and blue ball, floating in emptiness._

"I object to your definition of emptiness." While waiting for Lem to respond, Tii completes hir latest calculation, involving the growth rate of the number of pigs and chickens based on certain logical assumptions about petting, tree population, and the number of Glitchen currently in the world. 

"It's a metaphor!"

"Metaphors are inexact."

"So is the world," Lem says, rolling his many eyes in protest.

_The world appeared, peopled by the Glitchen, each a tiny fragment of imagination, clinging to the lands that arose out of the emptiness--_

"Objection--"

"Fine."

_\--clinging to the lands that arose out of the unstructured chaos. While imagination may be a good thing, too much of it, like too much of anything, can turn good to bad. The surplus of imagination meant that nothing was stable, nothing was permanent._

"Nothing is ever permanent," Tii says. "Entropy is the only constant."

"Not true! Lots of things are constant. Piggies will always like being petted. The distance between two points is always a straight line. And rubber chickens. Those are always a classic."

Tii does not deign to respond to this, having begun hir next calculation.

_But something happened that the Giants did not predict, because above all, imagination is unpredictable._

Tii sniffs, or would if zie had anything resembling a nose. Tii does not like unpredictability. Tii is still dubious about imagination, even though zie played as much of a part in the creation of the world as the other ten Giants.

_In the face of the Rook, enemy of imagination, hater of creativity, singular in thought yet multiple in form--_

Tii prepares to object, then thinks better of it. Zie has no objection to entities that embody contradiction.

_\--the Glitchen banded together and used the power of imagination against the Rook. Each contribution was small, but when added together, they created something greater than the sum of its parts._

Tii cannot let this pass. "That is mathematically impossible."

"But it's true! That's even better than possible."

_Even though the Rook returns again and again, the Glitchen always unite to drive it away. Despite the threat of destruction, they build and cultivate and learn._

"It's a cycle," Tii says. Cycles are another thing Tii approves of. So symmetrical. Easily divisible into equal segments. Tii also likes lines, one thing zie has in common with Lem. Lem's lines tend to wander, however, making detours. Like Lem's stories. "Have you reached the end of the story yet?"

"Stories don't end," says Lem absently.

"Entropy."

"Quiet," Lem says. "I have another road to build."


End file.
